What is a Bong?

Bongs are devices used to smoke substances such as tobacco or marijuana out of. Often known as a water pipe, they have two distinct advantages over smoking through a pipe or cigarette:

They use water to cool and filter the smoke before it enters the smoker’s lungs.

They allow the user to inhale a large amount of smoke very quickly.

Acrylic Water Bongs

More information about Bongs

To use a bong the user inhales through the gap at the top and put a flame over the substance that they are smoking. All bongs have a shottie that the smoker puts there finger over whilst doing this to keep the air in, and once the substance is burnt out the finger is taken off and all the smoke is inhaled directly into the users’ lung.

Bongs are filled with water at the bottom to make the smoke easier on the lungs, some variations are to add ice for a cooler smoke or to use other liquids (although if alcohol is used it filters out the THC, defeating the purpose of smoking any marijuana)

Bongs can be made at home with simple household items and come in many variations. A few are listed below:

The Basic Water Bong
This is a simple water bong used in the way described above. See also Water Bongs.

The Gravity Bong
This bong uses a half bottle put into water and is slowly pulled up making the smoke very quickly enter the lungs of the user. In this case the water is not used to filter the smoke but to create a consistent flow of smoke. See also Gravity Bongs.

The Bushmans Bong
This is a bong that can be made on the run, it’s simply a can with holes in it and smoke through the opening at the top.

Bongs that are purchased can be made out of many materials such as acrylic, metal and plastic. These bongs are often more durable and air tight than the home made bongs but both are quite effective.

Other more novelty bongs are available such as the double chamber bong – allowing for a super effective smoke, using two chambers instead of one.

Alternatives to a bong are joints (cannabis and sometimes tobacco rolled in a paper), vaporizers (these heat up the marijuana to the right temperature releasing the THC in the substance creating no smoke but still inhaling it into the user’s lungs) and pipes (these can again, be home made or bought).